LinkedIn surveyed people around the world for its "Dream Jobs" survey, asking about their most common childhood career aspirations. According to the survey, the top childhood dream job for U.S. men was pro athlete and for women was teacher.

The other day, I asked my 7-year-old son what he wants to be when he grows up.

His answer was fairly predictable, as little boys go. "I want to be a fireman," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I want to help people, and if they're hurt, then I can help them," he replied.

I was proud of that answer while also realizing that his idea of a "dream job" may change as he grows older. After all, when I was a boy, I can remember thinking I wanted to be a firefighter, too. Or a cowboy. Or Darth Vader.

But over time, I realized that what I really wanted to be was a writer, and I was lucky enough to have the chance to follow that dream.

I thought back on those childhood ambitions recently when I received the results of a survey by professional networking company LinkedIn.

LinkedIn surveyed more than 8,000 people around the world for its "Dream Jobs" survey, asking about their most common childhood career aspirations and whether they eventually landed their dream jobs.

According to the survey, the top childhood dream jobs for U.S. men were: professional or Olympic athlete (8.2 percent); airplane or helicopter pilot (6.8 percent); scientist (6.8 percent); lawyer (5.9 percent); and astronoaut (5 percent).

Come to think of it, I probably wanted to be an astronaut, too. Maybe that fed into the Darth Vader thing.

A quick survey of the (many) women in the Kratz household verified the accuracy of those statistics. My 10-year-old daughter said she wants to be a third-grade teacher, because it's "fun to teach little kids."

In a similar response, my 12-year-old daughter said she wants to be a pediatrician because she "likes little kids." In fact, she covered two results of the survey with her answer.

"Before, I wanted to be a veterinarian, but then I realized you'd have to do some stuff that would be kind of hard to do to animals, like surgery," my second-oldest daughter said. "I don't want to do surgery on animals. I want to help little kids."

Fair enough.

My oldest daughter, who is about to turn 15, is the one who doesn't fit the LinkedIn results. When she was younger, she wanted to be president of the United States. Now, she wants to be a structural engineer.

"I've kind of always had an interest in architecture, and structural engineering goes along with architecture, but it also goes along with another of my interests, which is geology," she said.

Yes, she is wise beyond her years. (And I still think she'd make an excellent president someday.)

There's no way to know what my little ones will end up doing when they're older, but I do like the way they're thinking now, focusing on helping others and pursuing their interests.

And, according to LinkedIn, there's a one-in-three chance that they will achieve their dreams. The survey found that about 30 percent of respondents said they either currently have their childhood dream job or work in a career related to that dream job. Of those who don't work in their childhood dream job, most said that's because they became interested in a different career path as they aged.

Greg Kratz is an independent business columnist for DeseretNews.com and the Deseret News. Previously he was the Managing Editor of the paper's website. Prior to joining Deseret Digital Media, Greg was the assignment editor more ..